PHOENIX, Ariz. – Peter Wells is a glass-half-full kind of investor. That doesn’t mean he wears rose-colored glasses, only that his financial radar is tuned to spot opportunities others might overlook.

And in today’s rocky economy, Wells sees attractive long-term residential real estate investments in Arizona. Wells is senior partner in Condo Capital Solutions in Denver. Managing partner is Marcel Arsenault. Today, Wells announced his company is assuming management of Corriente Residences, a condominium community of 192 units in eight buildings at 7601 E. Indian Bend Road in Scottsdale. More than 50 of the 72 completed Corriente Residences have been sold.

Corriente Residences went into foreclosure Dec. 31. Its construction loan, as well as that of Aderra Condominium Residences, 11640 N. Tatum Blvd. in north Phoenix, were bought by CCS in August 2009. Both construction loans were sold by Starpointe Communities. Starpointe continues to manage the Aderra community.

“Condo Capital Solutions saw this as an opportunity to expasnd its presence in Arizona and to bring financial strength, 25 years of development expertise and a successful marketing approach to the marketplace,” says Holly Rasmussen, vice president of sales and marketing at CCS.

Condo Capital Solutions specializes in distressed real estate, focusing on condominium projects. The company has a portfolio of nearly 40 residential communities nationwide, including projects in Arizona, Colorado, Florida and Texas. The company also is researching investment potential in Atlanta; Charlotte, N.C.; Las Vegas, Nev.; Florida; and Southern California.

Wells says he and Arsenault are familiar with the Arizona market because they’ve been in the state since 2000. They are bullish on Arizona real estate “because it went down so far” in recent years. “We’re very attracted to markets that we think have got really strong recovery potential, but also markets that declined precipitously,” he says.

In the past year, CCS has purchased several completed and partly-completed condominium projects valued at about $150 million. The company recently paid $20.3 million for 64 unsold condos at Bridgeview Condominiums on the south shore of Tempe Town Lake.

CCS also owns and is marketing two projects in Tucson – Rio del Sol Condominum Homes and Boulder Canyon at La Reserve.

Wells says CCS also purchased Village Homes, a homebuilder in Denver, and is considering buying other local residential builders as well as raw land.

Although the company’s expertise is not in land, “we’ve ended up with quite a bit of land with some of our other acquisitions,” Wells says.

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